Silver gelatin black-and-white photoprints from two documentary projects: "In the South Bronx of America" (1975-1983, 43 prints) and "Refuge" (6 prints). According to Leonard Kriegel, Rosenthal's mission in the Bronx project and its book version was simply "to record the horror that is there....He wants us to feel shame at what has been done to the people of the South Bronx by a nation so indifferent to suffering that it can pretend the mean streets were burned down by their inhabitants." (Siegel, "In Sorrowful Celebration of the Bronx," Foreword, Feb. 23, 2001, p. 13)

Publications:

In the South Bronx of America: Photographs by Mel Rosenthal with essays by Grace Paley, Martha Rosler and Barry Phillips. Curbstone Press

Cite as:

Mel Rosenthal Photopprints, Archives Center, National Museum of American History